I write things here that interest or amuse me, and that I think are worth sharing. They might be topical, or 'cold case', educational or trivial; the only rule is that they will have something to do with genealogy. You can contact me at thefamilyrecorder@rocketmail.com

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Wednesday, 8 August 2012

You know you're a genealogist when...

We don't have the Letterman show in the UK at the moment, and I'm missing his 'Top Ten' lists, so I've had to make up my own.

You know you're a genealogist when...

... you are more interested in the credits at the end of a TV show than in the show itself

...you're reading a family saga-type book and you look for a pedigree chart at the front. And if there isn't one, you draw one as you go along.

...a dear friend announces they are going to have a romantic wedding on a tropical island, and before congratulating them you make sure they know about lodging a copy of their marriage certificate with the GRO.

...Who Do You Think You Are? is on TV so you have Ancestry, Findmypast, FamilySearch etc open on separate tabs on your laptop, to check the research while you watch.

...it's your birthday soon so you ask for a couple of death certificates, some ScotlandsPeople credits, acid-free storage boxes and a Flip-Pal scanner.

...you never knew you could use a spreadsheet for financial calculations, you thought it was for indexing parish register transcripts.

...you tell your workmates you'll be spending two weeks in Utah in the middle of winter, and are surprised when they ask if you are going ski-ing.

...the first thing you think of when someone says 1812 isn't Tchaikovsky's overture, or even a war in North America, but Rose's 'Act for the better regulating and preserving Parish and other Registers'.

...you can't read a road map, but you know the Phillimore Atlas and Index of Parish Registers like the back of your hand.

...you get chatting with a telesales person, and at the end of the conversation you've persuaded them they should start tracing their family tree, and they haven't sold you a thing.

...when you read the BDMs in a town where your family lived with a notebook and pencil for the 'maybe' names, and a laptop with your family history program searching the sequence of family naming patterns .....

... when you give a family tree as a christening gift, with group sheets to be filled out for those you don't already know ....

Absolutely, I asked for 2 birth certificates for my 15th birthday (way back in the days when you visited Somerset House to get certs!!). You also know you have trained your children well when your son meets you at the airport when you have been away on holiday and his first words are "Here's your death certificate" !!!

I think I've done at least five of these, lol :-) the must recognizable was watching wdytya whole checking the research. In fact, after the first couple of scenes, I'll pause the show to see what I can come up with myself and then watch to see if it matches!

When you spent a week at Niagra Falls, visiting family and places you've always wanted to visit. You come home to show your kids (adults) your vacation photos, and you have only one of living people and the rest are tombstones (at the places you always wanted to visit.)

About Me

I've been tracing the history of my own family and other people's for over 20 years. It started as a hobby, but I liked it so much it became my job. Following several years of freelancing I have worked for The National Archives (UK) since 2002, currently as Records Specialist - Family History.